1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - Transmission porn - see page 59

[Mally]

51 minutes ago, Peter C said:

I want to have a look inside, remove the rubber hose that dropped inside when I added some snake oil and I want to change the oil and give it a good clean.

If it's the box I think it is the bell housing weighs a ton. You may be able to remove that before the box.

[Peter C]

2 minutes ago, Mally said:

If it's the box I think it is the bell housing weighs a ton. You may be able to remove that before the box.

You might be right!

[Joey spud]

Pinto's of this age were painted black.

I used to leave both manifolds on as it saved time cleaning up and replacing gaskets or dealing with broken studs. Also the manifolds are great for routing your old scrapyard seatbelt or B+Q blue rope through when you do the final lift.

[Peter C]

I have made arrangements to hire the engine crane next Friday and hand it back the following Monday morning. How much? How does £15 plus VAT sound to you? Bargain, I know. 

I have made further progress with getting the engine ready for removal.

I removed the exhaust manifold, still attached to the downpipe. Separating the downpipe from the exhaust is a matter of undoing two nuts and bolts and the manifold nuts came off in a couple of minutes. With the manifold and downpipe out of the way, I will have plenty of space to tidy up the engine bay.

On the other side of the engine, I removed the HT leads, fuel pump and associated hoses. I disconnected wiring for the distributor, temperature sensor, oil pressure sensor and a couple of wires that extended to the carburettor. I've taken plenty of photographs from every angle, so putting it all back together again shouldn't be a problem.

I wanted to remove the carburettor together with the inlet manifold as I am unfamiliar with the throttle linkage and choke mechanism and didn't want bits flying off in every direction.

And here it is, in all its glory.

So this is where I am now.

I've loosened off all the engine mounts' bolts so the engine is now almost ready for removal. 

I celebrated in style.

Ford very kindly provided a bracket for removing the engine. It's mounted on the inlet manifold side of the cylinder head.

Will I be able to lift the engine out by suspending it from this bracket? It seems to be located too far back for the engine to come out level.

I propose to use a towing rope to lift the engine out. I prefer it to a chain as it won't cause any damage in the event of chain to metal contact.

Keeping the exhaust manifold on is unlikely to be of much help as the rope will not fit through the gaps between manifold and the cylinder head.

I need to do some more research into how to safely remove a Pinto.

So what's left to do? I need to remove the gearstick, the starter motor, clutch cable, speedo cable, reverse light switch cable and propshaft and loosen off the gearbox mount.

@Joey spud I don't think that my engine has ever been painted. 

More soon.

 

 

[Peter C]

This is a useful video.

Looks like I will need to remove the bonnet too.

 

[N19]

You should have an 'ear' like that on the frontmost exhaust port. That will allow you to loop something between them. Let me find a pic.

[N19]

Here's when I lifted mine back in.

and the bracket at the front is visible here.

 

[Joey spud]

Re the paint. It was years ago since I last got close to a Sierra Pinto engine but the sump was painted black and I thought the block and head was too although it was only a thin pissy coat.

Maybe I'm misremembering things.

[Peter C]

20 minutes ago, N19 said:

You should have an 'ear' like that on the frontmost exhaust port. That will allow you to loop something between them. Let me find a pic.

Noted, I will make a bracket to fit on the exhaust manifold side.

[Peter C]

One of the first things I did yesterday was remove the fuel pump and associated hoses. Everything was fine.

I was in the workshop until around 4pm. Everything was fine.

I left the workshop doors open and went to close them at around 7pm. At the same time, I popped into the garage to have a look at what sort of bracket I will need to make, to fit around the exhaust manifold studs, as necessary to tie a rope to the front of the engine. Everything was fine.

As I was leaving the house this morning, I thought I could smell petrol but didn't think anything of it.

I came home half an hour ago and I could really smell petrol. I opened the garage doors and noticed that everything wasn't fine.

Fuel has leaked out from an uncapped supply pipe and saturated the floor, which has caused the floor panels to debond and distort. As you can imagine, the smell was intense. 

I capped the fuel supply pipe.

Why didn't this fucking pipe leak a drop for approx 6 hours whilst I was in the garage yesterday afternoon and evening? 

I'm going to have to pull the Sierra out of the garage and strip the floor back to the slab.

I will buy new flooring but will wait to install it until after I have removed the engine and gearbox. 

More soon.

Wank.

[grogee]

That's terrible luck for you, and I'm with you - why wasn't this obvious when you stripped it? 

Anyway, no use crying over spilled petrol. My spilling petrol story involved getting it in my eyes and seconds later, stuck in my ear when I instinctively turned away from the flow. 

On balance I'd rather spill it on the floor but having to re-do the flooring mid-engine out job is a PITA. 

Good vibes your way. 

[danthecapriman]

22 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Re the paint. It was years ago since I last got close to a Sierra Pinto engine but the sump was painted black and I thought the block and head was too although it was only a thin pissy coat.

Maybe I'm misremembering things.

As far as I’m aware Pinto engines always had a black painted block. It was different paint to the gloss or satin paint they used on the sump pan and rocker/timing belt covers. It was a bit like that funny black paint you spray on barbecue’s and stoves. It never seemed to last particularly well though and rust stains came through really quickly and easily. 
On mine I’ve used POR15 engine enamel. Ford blue for the rocker/timing belt covers, gloss black on the sump pan and matt black on the block.

[Peter C]

I tied the front section of the exhaust to the gearbox mount and pulled the Sierra out of the workshop.

The aftermath.

What a fucking mess!

Petrol melted the felt backing of a carpet tile that I used to protect the floor.

And whilst pulling the Sierra out of the workshop, unbeknownst to me the nearside front tyre deposited some of the melted felt onto the paving outside. Nice.

I removed the loosely stored items.

And pulled up the totally fucked floor tiles.

There were still pools of petrol on the slab.

Once I cleaned and dried the floor slab, I put everything back as it was before.

I cleaned the felt residue with petrol and rinsed it off with water.

Most of the staining came off ok.

I will be pressure washing the engine block and gearbox and will do the slabs at the same time.

My eyes sting and I have a headache. 

I will have to keep the workshop doors open for as long as possible, to get the rest of the smell out. 

Despite this fucking annoying set back, more soon.

 

[Christine]

Fucking hell , all that vapour on a hot day ...a spark from a light switch and ...woomph...everything burning..

[Christine]

Still , now the tanks empty ..you could take it off and paint it 

[Peter C]

2 minutes ago, Christine said:

Fucking hell , all that vapour on a hot day ...a spark from a light switch and ...woomph...everything burning..

I thought of that and sprinted* out of the workshop immediately after flicking the lights on.

[danthecapriman]

What a massive pisser! Makes you wonder what all the chemicals we all mess around with do to your skin if it does that to those tiles. 
I once got petrol run down my arm while changing a filter. It was fine on my hand and arm but my god did it sting like a bugger when it got to my arm pit!😄     
I’ve had petrol in my eyes before too. That was considerably less funny.

Those warped shrivelled floor tiles remind me of some rubber insulated gloves I used at work for live working. One day I used some spirit wipes (cloth wipes soaked in degreaser) which left residue on my hands. Then I put the insulated gloves on after to something. Once done I put the gloves in the drawer in the back of my van and went home. Next day went to get the gloves out again and the spirit residue had attacked the rubber and made the gloves all shrivel up and distort. They had little holes all over them everywhere too.

[N19]

I've had petrol down my arm a few times, and once a mouthful when trying to prime a fuel pump last year. Nasty. Might suggest wafting a bloody big bit of card or board or something to get some good airflow through. 

[Christine]

One of my clients is a nurse who tends to the illegal  boat crossers  in Crowborough camp . You may have seen about it on the news ....

She said one she treated had chemical burns on his legs..

I said    "  was it from making a bomb ? "

No , it's petrol and salt water that does it  , sloshing around in the bottom of the boats  on the way over.. 

So don't put petrol on your cock if you haven't washed it first.

[Peter C]

2 minutes ago, Christine said:

So don't put petrol on your cock if you haven't washed it first.

Now you tell me.

[Christine]

1 hour ago, Peter C said:

I thought of that and sprinted* out of the workshop immediately after flicking the lights on.

Did you leave it switched on , coz it'll arc again when its turned off !  

[Peter C]

7 minutes ago, Christine said:

Did you leave it switched on , coz it'll arc again when its turned off !  

It’s off now and the workshop didn’t explode.

[camryv6]

A wire wheel in an angle grinder will clean the paving slabs 

[stuboy]

bloody hells fire.................... almost

[vinyljunky]

1 hour ago, camryv6 said:

A wire wheel in an angle grinder will clean the paving slabs 

And is a nifty way to discover any lingering petrol 

[silvercar]

Dammed vacuum locks, nearly lost two guys a few years ago because engineers didn’t understand basic fluid mechanics  and left 500 m3 of test water to eventually hurtle out of an 8 foot pipe.

I can also attest that bathing in petrol is not a great idea.

Nice car. How does it handle in the wet?

[Peter C]

5 minutes ago, silvercar said:

 How does it handle in the wet?

Wouldn’t know, it’s a dry day only kind of car.

Or do you mean how does it cope in a workshop full of petrol?

[silvercar]

No, i meant how does it handle in the wet? Many many moons ago I worked for a hotel as a hall porter/driver. Car of choice for collecting/ delivering guests from the port or airport was a very early 1.6 sierra in full beige and it was, quite frankly, fucking awful in wet conditions. No idea why - maybe tyres, maybe suspension - drifting was natural rather than forced. Never driven one since so no idea whether that behaviour was normal or not.

[Peter C]

These photos just popped up on my Facebook reminder thingy. Twelve years ago today I first drove my 230E into the freshly built workshop.

Nice floor!

[beko1987]

At least the concrete pad is spotless now 😬🔥